New York, May 18, '39
My Dear Sir:
Permit me to inquire, if you directed your clerk
at Auburn to forward the [rest ?] of your [progress ?]
as mentioned in your last, some weeks since? It has
not yet reached us; and as there is but one number
more, of the thirteen the volumes, to be prepared for the
press, I am exceedingly anxious to include it in that
issue; having "filed a declamation against you,"
to this effect, in a notice to our readers, a month
or two ago.
You will be gratified, I am sure, to learn, that,
wide as was our circulation, it is rapidly increasing,
at home and abroad. We have added a thousand
copies to our edition, since the accession of Mr. Irving,
who, as I gather from a recent letter from our Lon-
don publishers, is equally popular in England,
(over)
We had Irving and Halleck at dinner with us, a few
days since; and the former, looking incidentally over
your kind present of old "Petrus Poterius", took occasion
to speak of you and Mrs. S., in terms which made me
like him even better than before; though he had been a
more entertaining guest than I had ever before en-
countered. Mr. Halleck is now in our lists, and [ ?]
[ ?] is in all respects devoted to the interests of your
work; eliciting the aid of his distinguished literary friends,
here and in England, and contributing largely him-
self. Should you have leisure to glance over the May
number, you will detect his facile hand in all its
departments.
I have but just returned from Philadelphia. I found
my brother nearly completely recovered from an in-
disposition, a bronchial complaint, that at one time
threatened previous consequences. His little motherless
boy, a lovely cherub, is his only real solace. Hoping
to see you, in Albany, in the course of a few weeks,
I remain, with high regard,
Hon. W. H. Seward
Very Sincerely Yrs.
L. Gaylord Clark
Paid
Hon. William H. Seward,
Albany,
N.Y.
L. Gaylord Clark, N.Y.
May 18. 1839
